This invention relates to composite materials with highly aligned discontinuous fibers, and a method for preparing such composites.
In the weaving of composite fibers, it is common to employ a loom. Typically, the loom includes a supply of filament or fiber materials which are arranged on a beam or a creel. The creel is loaded with a plurality of spools or bobbins upon which the filament or fiber is wound, and from which the filament or fiber can be extended onto the weaving area. The creel thus supplies continuous fiber to the loom. In conventional systems, a substantially large number of bobbins or spools containing the filament can be loaded on to the creel.
Each filament is thread through a comb and an appropriate harness heddle, extended across a loom bed which forms part of the loom, and is held in a pin block. The pin block is drilled with a plurality of holes each of which is designed to accept a filament extending from the creel. A steel pin or other suitable means is used to wedge a filament in the hole and therefore to ensure that it remains securely fixed across the loom bed. The filaments may be fastened to a cloth beam, which winds up material. Alternately, they may be securely fixed across the loom bed in an otherwise acceptable manner.
The plurality of filaments which extend across the loom bed are referred to as the warp. The heddle, which is one of a set of parallel cords or wires that when mounted compose the harness, is used to guide the warp filaments to facilitate weaving. Thus, a particular warp filament, or set of warp filaments, is raised or lowered over the loom bed with respect to other filaments or sets of filaments. According to conventional weaving technology, a complement of filaments or fibers is raised or lifted by two or more harnesses on the loom, creating a space with respect to another complement of fibers and in which a shuttle trailing a fiber is able to pass. Those fibers interspaced between the complements of warp filaments are known as the weft fibers, or weft, and run at angles which are typically transverse to those of the warp filaments. The weft passes between fiber groups, keeping them separate. The positions of the harnesses alternate in a continuing cycle, and between each change of position of each fiber set, a weft is introduced between the warp filaments. The repetition of this cycle and the introduction of the weft between each change repeats as necessary to create the woven ply or panel.